标题: New York Times, Sept 26, 2019 [打印本页] 作者: choi 时间: 9-26-2019 15:07 标题: New York Times, Sept 26, 2019 There is no need to read the rest of any of the three.
Jane Perlez, Buying the World's Silence on Muslim Detention Camps; Economic heft givs China great leverage. at page A4.
the first three paragraphs:
"BEIJING — When Turkey's leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, visited Beijing this summer, he hailed a new Silk Road bridging Asia and Europe. He welcomed big Chinese investments for his beleaguered economy. He gushed about China’s sovereignty.
"But Mr Erdogan, who has stridently promoted Islamic values in his overwhelmingly Muslim country, was largely silent on the incarceration of more than one million Turkic Muslims in China’s western region of Xinjiang, and the forced assimilation of millions more. It was an about-face from a decade ago, when he said the Uighurs there suffered from, “simply put, genocide” at the hands of the Chinese government.
"Like Mr. Erdogan, the world has been noticeably quiet about Xinjiang, where China has built a vast network of detention camps and systematic surveillance over the past two years in a state-led operation to convert Uighurs into loyal, secular supporters of the Communist Party. Even when diplomats have witnessed the problems firsthand and privately condemned them, they have been reluctant to go public, unable to garner broad support or unwilling to risk financial ties with China. 作者: choi 时间: 9-26-2019 15:08 本帖最后由 choi 于 9-27-2019 11:43 编辑
(2) Stephen Castle, Johnson and Parliament are Back. At Square One. Jeered, Britain's leader yells at lawmakers. at page A7.
(a) caption of a photo showing UK prime minister jabbing a finger at opposition lawmakers: "Boris Johnson dared opponents in Parliament on Wednesday [Sept 25] to stage a vote of ono confidence in him.
(b) the first four paragraphs:
"LONDON -- A day after a crushing rebuke from his country;s highest court, a notably unchastened Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared before a hastily reconvened Parliament and doubled down on his hard-line Brexit approach.
"If anyone had expected Mr Johnson to appear before the lawmakers hat in hand after being forced to cut short a trip to the United Nations pat New York City] and return back home, they were [sic; considering the subject in the clause is 'anyone'] presumably disappointed.
" 'Come on!' Mr Johnson yelled over a barrage of jeers as he urged his opponent to stage a vote of no confidence in him.
" 'Humbug,' he declared, when one Labour lawmaker Paula Sherriff [sic], made an emotional plea for him to stop using inflammatory language.
Note:
(a) The UK Supreme Court decision:
R (on the application of Miller) (Appellant) v The Prime Minister (Respondent). UK Supreme Court, Sept 24, 2019 (case number: 2019 UKSC 41; citation: 2019 UKSC 41 (which is the number of the starting page, when the opinion is published as a bound volume)) https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2019-0192.html
(i) You need not read the decision, but should know two words: prorogue (v) and prorogation (n).
prorogue (vt only): "discontinue a session of (a parliament or other legislative assembly) without dissolving it <James prorogued this Parliament, never to call another one>" https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/prorogue
(ii) The preceding definition gives an example of James, who was King James I of England.
The Parliament of 1604-1610. In Andrew Thrush and John P Ferris (eds), The House of Commons 1604-1629. Cambridge University Press, 2010 (six-volume set). https://www.historyofparliamento ... arliament-1604-1610
("6 Dec 1610 (prorogued)[,] Dissolved 9 Feb 1611 Following the accession of Scotland's king James VI as James I of England in March 1603, it was originally envisaged that Parliament would meet in the autumn, but in the event widespread plague meant that Parliament did not assemble until March 1604. For James, the chief purpose of this first meeting of the new reign was to bring about the statutory union of England and Scotland [but the Parliament refused] * * * Shortly after the Parliament began [in February 2010] Salisbury, now lord treasurer, explained to the Commons that the king needed £600,000 to clear his debts, repair the Navy and establish a contingency fund. In addition, he proposed that the Commons should provide the king with an annual income of £200,000, in return for which James would surrender ten feudal dues, the most significant of which was purveyance. These proposals formed the basis for what subsequently became known as the Great Contract. * * * Eventually, on 17 July[,1610], after much haggling, the king and the Commons agreed on a figure of £200,000 [reduced from £600,000], the amount that Salisbury had originally proposed [and did not decide on king's annual stipend]. * * * On 6 December -1610] James, having finally run out of patience, brought the session to an end. Though he initially intended that Parliament should reconvene on 9 February 1611, his anger was so great that on 31 December he issued a Proclamation dissolving the assembly, which (among Londoners at least) had earned for itself the sobriquet 'the Blessed Parliament' ")
"GENEVA -- The US agreed on Wednesday [Sept 25] to stay in a United Nations body that has regulated international mail service for more than a century after delegates agreed during emergency talks to change the way postal fees are structured.
"The Trump administration had threatened to leave the body, Universal Postal Union, after Oct 17 if its members did not change the system of fees * * *
"The administration's primary concern has been the sliding scale of fees that allowed China, the world's second-largest economy, to take advantage of lower rates that are available to developing countries. As a result, manufacturers in countries like China and Cambodia have been able to pay far less to send a small package to the United States than what it costs American businesses to ship one from Los Angeles to New York.
"The deal struck on Wednesday will allow the United States to start setting its own postal fees in July [2020] and allow other countries that receive more than 75,--- metric tons of mail a year to start phasing in higher rates in January 2021.